Idea Laundering

Read this piece in the WSJ today.  Yes, yes, I don't like the WSJ generally, and opinion pieces -- opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.

But sometimes I do agree with their assessments.  Take this article for instance
https://www.wsj.com/articles/idea-laundering-in-academia-11574634492?mod=e2fb&fbclid=IwAR3ieGcvenba8UEZjz6cEpN3LXU0S1g4zk6_P4ZNvDfh3iw0gM-_6-xezmQ

Having gone through some of these agenda-heavy courses, I know what the person was saying.  And generally speaking, I agree.

On the other hand (I am NOT an economist, but they don't have a monopoly on having one hand here and the other hand there), I think the person has a misguided view of what academia is like.  The knowledge industry is NEVER value free.  Any contrarian view is always met with dissent and hostility.  Just ask Gallileo, or Newton, or today, even Freud.  If you dare contest the existing paradigm, there's hell to pay.

So the idea that "real" academic research has this air of objective scientific inquiry etc is actually bullshit.

That's just the way the world is.  Vested interested is nothing to sneeze at.  So maybe it requires idea laundering, as the writer says, to actually get one's point across.  Sort of like revolutions in the real world.  If people don't buy into the dominant logic, what choice do they have but to rebel and resist?  Using any means possible?  Of course, if one were part of the dominant ideology, the elites in power, one takes a dim view of these things.  But if you're not...

Wonder what your thoughts are.